Study of Morphological Diversity of the vetchlings (Lathyrus spp.) in the Al-Ghab Region

Abstract

The study was conducted during the years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 on six vetchlings species (L. aphaca, L. blepharicarpus, L. digitatus, L. gorgoni, L. hierosolymitanus, and
 L. nissolia) which are widespread wildly in different locations of Al-Ghab region, Syria. Twenty-seven morphological characters of foliar, flowering, fruiting, and seed assemblies were used to study the morphological characterization of these species, and morphological taxonomic keys were established.The data were organized into tables and analyzed, then a dendrogram representing the relationship of dissimilarity was constructed using NTSYS program through the UPGMA method. The morphological cluster tree for all types showed three main groups with a dissimilarity contrast ratio of 70%. The first group contained the species L. blepharicarpus from different locations, L. gorgoni and L. aphaca, with dissimilarity coefficient of 50%,while the second group contained the species  L. digitatus, L. hierosolymitanus, L. aphaca, and L. nissolia with coefficient of 57%.While the
 L. hierosolymitanus genotype from (Mardash) site formed a distinct separate cluster, showing a 70% genetic distance from all other groups.